


Drowning, without lungs.

by Perr1n



Category: SOMA (Video Game)
Genre: Body Horror, Explicit Language, F/F, F/M, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:08:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21578086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perr1n/pseuds/Perr1n
Summary: This is quite possibly the greatest psychological horror game I have ever seen.BE warned, this is not a happy story, I couldn't help but be as serious as I could with this.
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

"You sure 'bout this?" It was probably the fifth time Bax had asked the question. Carl slaps the engineer on his back, "We'll be fine, okay?" Baxter nods, swallows the lump in his throat as he continues the process of donning his suit. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he doesn't make a mess," Amy says, her plump lips offering a kind smile. Gavin speaks next, "Give Pete a call if ya need anything, we'll try to keep in touch." 

Carl thanks him, giving Jane a firm handshake, just barely able to make out her steely blue eyes behind the tinted glass of her diving helmet. "Have fun, you two." She says, voice muffled.

Amy wiggles her fingers in a goodbye wave, watching the airlock hatch swing closed, turning to Carl with a muttering of the words, _"Cazzo Christo_ , Bax acts like the place'll blow up if he leaves." Her companion chuckles, glancing behind himself, observing the narrow, gun-metal grey hall. "Ssssoooooo, what now?" Amy shrugs, pulling out her tablet. 

"First things first, we should check the heat shields." They head off, Carl leading, making their way past the blazing orange glow of the thermal plant, Semken letting out a groan as he takes a seat in the pilot chair. A soft whirr and click echoes when the display screen drops down, covering Carl's head and chest. 

"Diagnostics look good, running the interface," Amy says from her spot across the room, pressing buttons and other technobabble stuff. 

Carl inhales, lets the breath leave slow, closing his eyes. A gentle buzzing sound rings in his ears, when he opens his eyes he is no longer in the Upsilon Control room, but outside, surrounded by murky green-blue water, the ground silt covered rock. He looks down, observing the two metal pincers that had replaced his hands. "Amy, ya hear me?" 

"Audio's good, Carl." "Right then, let's get to work."

Elsewhere, Jane, as always, takes the lead, Bax, Gavin, and the others close behind, trudging along the ocean floor, towards Lambda, nothing but their own breathing and gurgling of water audible. The sound, or lack thereof, was unnerving, but nobody wanted to admit it. If Bax looked up, he could just faintly see the pale blue that was the surface, flitting black shapes, various aquatic life speckled in. 

So caught up was he in admiring the fish, Bax almost jumped out of his suit when the voice of Peter Strasky echoes within the helmet. "That you out there, Jane?" Vigdis beats Jane to the punch, "Yeah, Strask. Let us in, will ya?" "Yep."

With that, the heavy metal door, the airlock entrance to Site Theta grinds open, the groaning of its movement muffled by the ocean water, making the noise sound like the call of a whale. Once everyone is in and the water is drained, Gavin is the first to remove his helmet, shivering but relieved to be inside again, just about everyone else in their group right there with him.

The second seal opens to reveal a spacious interior that branched off to different subsections, but directly in front of them was Supervisor Dorian, who spreads his arms in greeting. "Good to see ya guys!" The portly man states, clasping Janes's hand when she offers it. "Good to be here, Carl and Amy stayed behind to keep the plant running." Dorian nods, "I'll make sure Strasky keeps an ear on them, rest of you get warm and fed, looks like you'll be staying for a while."


	2. Chapter 2

The weird noise just kept going, like the ringing of a bell, shrill and annoying beyond belief. Ever since Carl disengaged himself from the pilot seat the migraine had hammered away at his skull, throbbing like a drum. Amy chalked it up to some sort of interference with Carl's BlackBox, saying it should go away soon.

But she was not around, nope. Old Miss Azzaro was off checking on the U.H's, frowning as the BULL Helper, suspended by many steel cables whirrs and clicks, waving one pneumatic claw weakly, rectangular head with its single yellow L.E.D eye flashing. "Hey," Amy says. "Hey, you!" The BULL turns its eye towards her, letting out a static laden groan.

"Can...Can you talk? Like the others?" All the BULL does is groan again, the sound disturbingly akin to a human in pain. That thought alone sent shivers down Amy's back, but against her better judgment, she leans closer, noting the many black cables that ran across its bulky yellow shell, burrowing into its metal hide, dotted with small cyan blue nodes. 

"Why are you like this?" She whispers, the robot moaning pitifully, the creak of its limb raising to brush the tip across the technician's cheek. "You want some Structure Gel?" Amy offers, the BULL falling silent for a bit, its next movement to raise and lowers its head. Amy manages a smirk, "Yeah, ya do." She backs away, "So weird, doesn't make any sense." 

The robot whines again, louder and clearer. Ignoring the chill creeping down her back, Amy moves to stand at the BULL's side, unscrewing a panel to reveal a small black and yellow striped box, the machines power core. "I'm gonna shut you down now, okay?" Why was she talking to it like it was a kid? It was a robot for God's sake!

The BULL snaps its pincer, thankfully way out of range as Azzaro yanks the box free, causing the machine to go silent, light dimming to nothing. "Creepy as hell." She mutters to no one but herself.

Her worries aren't lessened in the slightest when Heather's reply to the email Amy sends her says to just use pneumatic seals to block off area's to keep the robots from breaking anything, but at this point, she wonders, what else can she and Carl do?

It was quick work, Upsilon wasn't all that big, thankfully bulkhead doors existed in places Amy wanted to lockdown, though she still worries. A U.H BULL was designed for heavy lifting, almost four times stronger than any man, if it really wanted to it could probably just tear through walls, but then that'd mean it could move out of the water, which is impossible.

Amy had been sitting in her favorite spot, whose walls, roof and floor were reinforced plastic, allowing her to gaze in awe at the beauty of the ocean, which she makes a rough sketch of on her notepad. Her eyes flick to the radio box attached to the wall, chiming to tell her somebody was calling. She answers, Carl's voice on the line. "Amy, you there?" "Yeah. I'm here." 

"Ready to let it go?" He asks. She sighs, "I guess so." Carl cannot help but grin with his next statement, "Plenty of opportunity to go zen on the fish back at Theta." She chuckles softly, "I'm gonna miss this place. "Upsilon?" Amy nods, even though Carl can't see it, "Come on, we've worked here for years! You're not gonna miss it? Even a little bit?" 

Carl scoffs, "A power plant full of psychotic machines? I'll find a way to cope." 

"That's cold, man. Not Upsilon's fault it got swarmed." "Whatever, seal the thing and get back here." Again she nods pointlessly, "Roger that."

Locking up the last of the rooms, Amy returns to Carl, leaning against the wall, just behind him the hall that leads to the airlock. "Did you get the final backup turbos running?" He asks, "Everything is wired evenly-we've hedged our bets as much as we possibly can." Is his friend's response. Carl shrugs, "So that's it then. Enough power to run PATHOS-TWO until the next apocalypse." He turns to face her, "We're ready to go." 

Amy rests her back against the wall, just next to the maintenance hatch. "I really hope we didn't mess anything up. I don't want to have to come back here again." Carl places a hand on her shoulder, "Relax, it's over." He assures, "We're going to Theta." She looks up into his kind, bearded face. "Maybe we should've sealed more blocks, I don't trust the helpers to let this place run in peace."

Carl gives her a firm squeeze, "We've sealed everything! Everything from the barracks to the com center." She brings her head up and down in confirmation as Carl goes on, "If anything ever sets foot in here again, they're gonna have a hell of a ti-" His sentence is cut off, replaced by an alarmed gasp, courtesy of the maintenance shaft hatch sliding open, whatever opened it gripping Carl by the neck as it rather clumsily exits into the hall, dripping a thick black sludge, said goo covering its lumpy, mangled body. 

"CARL!" Amy cries in horrid surprise, watching the creature, which she quickly realized was a U.H BULL, supported by two legs that seemed to be the pincer arms of at least two or more other BULL's, twisted and fused together by more of the rubbery tentacles dotted with blue lights she saw before, the yellow of its single eye replaced by dozens of blinding blue ones, a searchlight that cast both Amy and Carl, the latter with his legs kicking futilely against the robots broad torso, in its gaze. 

"R-RUN!" Carl manages, clawing at the metal fingers crushing his windpipe. The Bull screams, the noise like a drill grinding against metal, rearing back and driving its other hand into the side of Carl's head with all the monstrous strength it possessed, flinging his limp body, the head a ruined red mess. 

Amy is sprinting away, huffing, sobbing, the Construct lumbering after her, screaming and howling. "GET AWAY!" She roars, but still it continues its march, the metal stairs it climbs up in pursuit creaking as they just barely hold the weight of the machine.

Amy looks around, hurriedly trying to find a new path, but in her mad sprint, she had ended up to the aux power room her and Carl had been sleeping in, a dead end, the only exit with what brought her here in the first place blocking it. 

The creature stalks forward, snapping its claws together, imaging the horrid, twisted faker, this liar this bitch, being torn apart. 

**_"F-FFFF---fFFFAAAKKKEEE!!"_** It bellows, Amy feeling her mind grinding to a halt, at that moment it almost had her, Azzaro unable to comprehend the realization, the recognition as to who's voice tore each word free of the Bull's voice box. 

At the last second, she rolls aside, the Construct's leg catching on a power cable and ripping it free, sending sparks, dazzling white, everywhere. It stumbles, teeters like its about to fall over and in this moment Amy grabs the still sputtering wire, screaming till her lungs burned as the electrical current is sent coursing through the monster, its whole body shuddering, the lights on its mangled metal hide flashing like klaxons as it goes rigid, smoke curling from its body, before like a cut tree, falling to the ground with a thunderous clang.

"Piece...Of shit" Amy huffs out, followed by a spit near the corpse of the fried beast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
> 
> Let me know what you think about this in the comments if you want.


End file.
